Most of the coverage I have seen of this is just misdirecting noise - unsurprisingly. The issue is VERY simple. Ireland certainly has the ability to determine its own tax structure. But Ireland is also a member of the EU and that has specific treaty requirements, one of which is that individual countries cannot make tax arrangements with specific companies that are not available to all its competitors. There is also the issue of the impact of Ireland's actions with a specific company on the tax revenues of other EU countires. The EU Commissioner Margrethe Vestager was very clear on this. See press release